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Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

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‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Reviews Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary? Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Lifestyle The New Sober Boom Getting Hooked on Quitting

Getting Hooked on Quitting

Education Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous Is College Necessary?

Liberal Arts Cuts Are Dangerous

Is College Necessary?

Finance Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Dying Parents Costing Millennials Dear

Gen Z Investing In Le Creuset

Crypto Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

Investing SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters ‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

SEC vs Celebrity Crypto Promoters

‘Dark’ Personalities Drawn to BTC

The rock critic who changed the way I listen to music

Dave Marsh took rock 'n' roll seriously. So should we

Published September 8, 2026 12:00PM (EDT)

“A great new sound reaches us, always, as a miraculous gift.” 

The rock critic Dave Marsh, now of blessed memory, wrote that about Albert Ayler in 1998, and out of the thousands of memorable words Marsh wrote about music, that one stands out as perhaps the best declaration of his own personal creed. 

Dave Marsh was born in Flint, Michigan, where his dad worked on the railroad and did not appreciate the length of his son’s hair or the music he listened to. He left home as soon as he could, and later dropped out of Wayne State University to help start CREEM, where he was a founding editor. He later went on to write for everybody: Rolling Stone, Musician, Billboard, Long Island’s Newsday, Boston’s The Real Paper, the aforementioned Addicted To Noise, the short-lived Record. This is not a complete list. 

This is not an obituary, but instead an attempt at an homage from someone who would not be sitting here writing these words were it not for his work.

He launched his own publication, Rock & Roll Confidential, which was later renamed Rock & Rap Confidential. It was a deliberate and visible acknowledgment that Marsh did not view rap in the pejorative sense that far too many of his colleagues and music fans did — and still do. He wrote 22 books, countless liner notes, and hosted three radio shows on Sirius XM: “Live from E Street Nation,” “Live from the Land of Hopes and Dreams,” and “Kick Out The Jams.” He was a voracious reader and an even more voracious listener, for whom genre was of no concern. 

Marsh passed away on August 15 at the age of 76. This is not an obituary, but instead an attempt at an homage from someone who would not be sitting here writing these words were it not for his work; his encouragement and his friendship came later. By now you may have read many other similar pieces. They all likely point to his groundbreaking work as an actual pioneer of the genre, his endless support of up-and-coming writers, his voracious musical appetite, and his passion for talking about, debating, and arguing over music. 

It is the latter that most of his friends tend to remember; it wasn’t so much that Dave wanted you to think his way (although he wouldn’t necessarily........

© Salon